<\/p>\n
King Charles has launched one of Scotland\u2019s oldest sporting
\ntraditions after officially starting the historic hand ba\u2019 game
\nduring a visit to Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders.<\/p>\n
The King threw the brightly coloured ribboned ball into a
\nwaiting crowd of players, marking the start of a special exhibition
\nmatch between the town\u2019s traditional rivals, the Uppies and the
\nDoonies. At one point, the energetic scrum surged towards His
\nMajesty, prompting his security team to step in briefly, although
\nthe King emerged from the close encounter smiling.<\/p>\n
Historians believe hand ba\u2019 has been played in Jedburgh for
\ncenturies, with the annual contest formally dating back to 1704.
\nThe game sees the Uppies attempt to carry the ball towards the
\ntown\u2019s castle, while the Doonies aim to reach the River
\nJedwater.<\/p>\n
Charlie Young, president of the Jethart Callants Club, said it
\nwas \u201can honour\u201d to have the King start the match, adding that His
\nMajesty \u201cgot a bit of a shock\u201d when the play moved unexpectedly
\nclose to him.<\/p>\n
The King revealed it was not his first experience of the ancient
\nsport, having previously launched the Royal Shrovetide Football
\nmatch in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.<\/p>\n
The royal visit coincided with the opening of the two-week
\nJethart Callant Festival, the largest of the Borders\u2019 traditional
\nCommon Ridings celebrations. The festival commemorates the historic
\nriding of the town\u2019s boundaries and features parades, music and
\ncommunity events.<\/p>\n
During the visit, the King watched the festival\u2019s Callant lead a
\nhorseback procession through the town before members of his
\nentourage performed a traditional Borders reel in the market
\nsquare.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, His Majesty visited Jedburgh\u2019s monthly
\nmarket, where he met independent traders and local residents
\nagainst a backdrop of live music and performances.<\/p>\n
The King also toured the Jed Shed, a community workshop founded
\nin 2014 that provides carpentry facilities and a social space for
\nlocal people. During the visit, he watched a woodworking
\ndemonstration and spoke with members about how the project has
\nsupported their physical and mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n
His Majesty also visited a local business producing insulation
\nmaterials from UK-grown hemp, before spending more than three hours
\nmeeting members of the public who had lined the streets to welcome
\nhim.<\/p>\n
The engagement forms part of Royal Week in Scotland, the annual
\nprogramme of engagements undertaken by members of the Royal Family
\nnorth of the border.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" King Charles has launched one of Scotland\u2019s oldest sporting traditions after officially starting the historic hand ba\u2019 game during a visit to Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. The King threw the brightly coloured ribboned ball into a waiting crowd of players, marking the start of a special exhibition match between the town\u2019s traditional rivals, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2486257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2486256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/King-Charles-throws-himself-into-centuries-old-Scottish-tradition-in-Jedburgh.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2486256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486258,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486256\/revisions\/2486258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2486257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}